I always get a kick from hearing what the participants come up with. But the true value of this exercise is that it helps people realize that, although performance anxiety may appear mysterious, they actually know a great deal about the basic causes of stage nerves.

And that opens the door for us to examine those causes and map out routes to on-stage security.

Knowledge Brings Power

As with my workshops, in The Musician’s Way, I tackle the subject of performance anxiety using an approach that emphasizes the acquisition of knowledge and skills.

My view is that because anxiety stems from understandable causes, even if those causes seem hidden, by gaining knowledge and skills, we become empowered to take charge.

Therefore, Part II of the book presents 5 chapters that detail how musicians can get a grip on stage nerves and become adept performers. Here, I highlight the content of the first of those chapters, “Unmasking Performance Anxiety.”

The Fight-or-Flight Response

I begin that chapter with an exposé of the fight-or-flight response, pointing out that the fight-or-flight response is primeval and fires automatically when we feel fear.

It’s a plus if we’re crossing a street and we see a speeding car heading our way: adrenaline surges, and we bolt for the sidewalk. But if we’re about to perform a concert and we feel a comparable sense of alarm, then a flood of adrenaline might not be so helpful.

Of course, some adrenaline aids us on stage – a small jolt focuses the mind and fires the imagination. Excessive fight-or-flight activation, though, can incite tremor, butterflies, dry mouth, confusion, and the like.

So, to differentiate the types of arousal that undermine performance from those that support it, I define performance anxiety as “nervousness or distress that interferes with performing.” Performance excitement is the label I give to arousal that energizes performing.

The Many Faces of Anxiety

Nonetheless, the fight-or-flight response is only one of many anxiety characteristics, so the chapter next looks at how the effects of anxiety manifest across three phases: preperformance, at-performance, and postperformance.

Insomnia, for instance, is one manifestation of anxiety that can come calling pre- or postperformance. A racing heartbeat is a classic at-performance effect triggered by adrenaline.

I’ve found that when musicians acknowledge the effects that they face, they’re better able to initiate action plans.

The Roots of Stage Fright

For example, the conviction that any glitch will wreck a performance represents a cause rooted in personal belief (and a false belief at that). The choosing of overly difficult repertoire is a task-related cause. Not bringing a spare string or the right clothes to a concert arises from ignorance of how to prepare for performance situations.

The Musician’s Way depicts 12 prevalent causes and illustrates how selected causes and effects play out in musicians’ lives.

Crafting Confidence

The chapter culminates with “Crafting Confidence,” which outlines 12 anxiety-busting strategies that get fleshed out in the chapters to come.

Those strategies include ways to develop positive responses to stress, affirm meaning in performing, acclimate to performance settings, and otherwise prepare for shows.

In sum, by becoming knowledgeable about the nature of performance anxiety and acquiring tools to counteract it, musicians can conquer nervousness and lift their music making to new heights.

4 Comments

Being the optimist that I am, I assume that it’s possible for you to triumph over that forgetting problem. But doing so will require new thinking/action on your part. Given that you’ve explored numerous avenues for dealing with it, you might benefit from working with a performance coach who can suggest new strategies.

Well … not really. Thanks for trying and I don’t want to discourage you because what you’re doing here on Musiciansway is really very inspirational to the newcomers and you need to keep doing it. But in my case these can be pieces I have performed thousands of times, scenarios I have been playing in since the early 70’s, I just can’t imagine any more fortifying going on. I tried alternative interpretations, but that just lead me to even more muddle 🙂 Twenty minutes later, same piece, same spot, same lyric, everything can be fine.

No there’s something highly targeted about this, and as I say, I almost never forget to forget something, and it is never something trivial like the slip of one verb for a synonym, it will be something like the crux of the ballad or a major 7th while everyone else is on a minor 7th, an undermining sort of demon that seems like it tries to ensure the performance anxiety is justified. Self sabotage.

I’ve heard tell of others getting this, seems to me there was a broadway star that recently came back, maybe even Barbra Streisand or someone like that, they’d stopped dead in a performance, completely blank, and that so unnerved them they spend years trying to assure themselves they could surmount it. I’m dag-blasted certain I can but I think it is perhaps some kind of signal, some kind of sign to myself that I’m wanting to do something differently that I’m not at all certain what it is.

Now here’s a punchline: years ago I had one of those self-help psychology tapes, Richard Bandler of NLP fame, I remember his flowing grandios and gregarious presentation on the topic of remembering to forget, but for the life of me, I can’t remember his advice 🙂

Great question, G! An inability to access expertise is a common sort of stress response. Be confident that you can overcome this problem. Some quick thoughts: One characteristic cause of the forgetting you describe is learning that’s not sufficiently deep, so recall becomes fragile. Try exploring your music in new and varied ways so that you know it from more angles (e.g., in practice, speak text w/o singing; test your memory by starting at different places; sing melodies using note names, etc.). The idea is to create an inner representation of the music that’s so rich, that it becomes almost impossible to forget. Then, practice performing under a variety of conditions so that you acclimate to performance settings and discover the ways in which your preparation needs fortifying. You’ll find related posts in the category Performance Anxiety – http://musiciansway.com/blog/?cat=4 In particular, see “The four stages of memorization” & “Practicing performance”. Hope that’s helpful.

How about performance AMNESIA? Any tips there? Not forgeting you’ve just done a show 🙂 but forgetting absolutely everything you know as soon as you’re called to play. It seems a conditioned response because I never ever forget to forget at least some crucial thing, the key signature, the starting note, the entire bridge of a popular song, the critical lyric, it’s really quite amazingly specific, but I’d still rather get around it.